Houston government eliminating provincial communications arm

Premier Tim Houston is getting rid of the agency that has provided communications advice and marketing services to successive Nova Scotia governments for almost 30 years.

Communications Nova Scotia is being dissolved and staff are being reassigned to individual government departments, sources tell CBC News. Neither the premier nor Leah Martin, the cabinet minister responsible for CNS, were available Monday to answer questions about the shift.

An emailed statement from Houston's press secretary, attributed to Martin, suggested the reorganization was part of an effort to modernize the delivery of government messaging.

"The Communications Nova Scotia model hasn't changed in nearly a decade," the email said. "There is a real opportunity to enhance productivity, reduce duplication and streamline processes within the public service." 

According to 2024-25 budget documents, CNS had a $6.9-million budget and a staff of 87 people. It's unclear how many of those people will continue to work for the province.

Information posted by Nova Scotia Archives describes the agency, created in April 1996, as having been formed to "ensure that government communications are timely, accurate, effective, factual and respectful, objective and non-partisan."

Change will impact public, says NDP leader

The leader of the Official Opposition said those guiding principles die with CNS's dissolution.

"The implications for the public are that they will have a harder and harder time than they already do getting any objective sense of what is going on in their government," said NDP Leader Claudia Chender. "It appears that Tim Houston wants to have less scrutiny than he already has."

"He already regularly refuses to speak to media," she continued. "His ministers are notoriously difficult to get in touch with. And now we have no government employees who are tasked with letting the public know what their government is doing."

Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette expressed concern that CNS staff would no longer be bound by the agency's mandate and impartiality.

"Now you're into a situation where all of this is going to be pulled into departments and ultimately the decisions are going to be made by the premier's office," said Mombourquette.